ETHICS AND

PHILOSOPHY
WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?
PHILOSOPHY – came from two
Greek words “philos”(love)and
“Sophia”(wisdom) which means “Love of
Wisdom”.
 Ancient tradition tells us that the early
Greek thinkers called themselves “wise
men” and that out of humility, Pythagoras
(570-490 B.C.E) wanted to call himself
simply a “Lover of Wisdom”.
 Tophilosophize means to wonder about life, to
question reality and to find sense in what we
do as a human beings. Philosophy as a
science therefore gives the one philosophizing
an opportunity not just to reflect and think but
also to analyze the contents of his thoughts.
 In this case, philosophy is not
actually an abstract or speculative
science, as some people think, but a
subject that is directed towards
meaningful activity as a result of
profound reflection and analysis.
Others definitions of Philosophy:
1. Philosophy, according to Plato, is the highest form of inquiry.
2. For William James, philosophy is a collective name for questions that
have not been answered to the satisfaction of the one asking question.
3. For some philosophy is the world view of the person or the person’s
philosophic view of the universe or reality in relations to the purpose of
the actions and events.
4. Philosophy is a conceptual analysis or thinking about thinking or simply
reflecting on the contents of our thoughts.
5. Still for others, philosophy is primarily concerned with finding the
meaning and worth of reality including our human experiences.
6. Philosophy is also defined as the science that studies the ultimate
causes or explanation of things attained by the use of human reason
alone.
DIVISIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
1. Theoretical or Speculative Philosophy – studies the truth
to be known, God, immortality of the soul, origin of the
universe, among others.
2. Practical Philosophy – studies truths to be acted upon,
ethics, axiology, semantics, and the like.

PHILOSOPHY
THEORETICAL PRACTICAL

COSMOLOGY SEMANTICS
ONTOLOGY AXIOLOGY
METAPHYSICS AESHETICS
PSYCHOLOGY LOGIC
THEODICY ETHICS
EPISTEMOLOGY
• COSMOLOGY
Cosmology is a subject that studies the
origin and destiny of the universe, evolution and
the ultimate fate of the entire universe. The
word “universe” comes from the Greek word
“kosmos”. The first philosophers were actually
“cosmologists” since they dealt with the
questions regarding the origin of the universe in
a scientific and philosophical manner.
• ONTOLOGY
Ontology deals with the nature of existence
of things and the status of reality. The word
“onta” is a Greek word which means being
“being”. Ontology is also referred as the theory
of being “WHAT DOES TO EXIST MEAN?” or
“WHAT IS THE NATURE OF BEING?” are
some of the questions often asked in Ontology.
• METAPHYSICS
Metaphysics came from the Greek words
“meta” (beyond) and “physikon” (nature). As
a branch of philosophy, metaphysics studies the
nature of the mind, the self and consciousness.
It also investigates the nature of religion,
existence of God, the concepts of time, space,
cause and chance.
• PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology for the Greeks was basically a
study about the nature of the soul of the person
and other entities. It was the philosopher
Aristotle who coined the word Psychology
which came from the Greek words “psyche”
meaning and logos meaning science or study.
• THEODICY
Theodicy is also known as Rational
Theology. Theodicy came from the Greek
word “theos” meaning “GOD” and “dike”
meaning “justice”. As a branch in philosophy,
Theodicy investigates the nature, being and the
attributes of God not based on the bible and
divine relation but by logical abstractions and
reasoning.
• EPISTEMOLOGY
Epistemology comes from the word
“episteme” meaning knowledge. Epistemology
is concerned with the definition of knowledge
and related concepts, the sources and criteria
of knowledge, the kinds of knowledge possible,
the degree of its veracity and the exact relation
between the one who knows and the object
known.
• SEMANTICS
Semantics came from the Greek words
“sema” meaning “sign or mark” and
“semantikos” meaning “significant”. This
practical branch of philosophy studies the
meaning of words and its linguistic forms, their
functions and their relationships other words.
• AXIOLOGY
The word Axiology is from the Greek words
“axios” meaning “worthy” and “logos”
meaning “discourse or study”. Axiology is
thus the discourse or study of the philosophy or
system of value judgements or worthless.
Axiology studies, its origin, types and
characteristics.
• Aesthetics
Aesthetics came from the Greek word
“aisthetikos” means one is perceptive of things
through his sensations, feelings and intuitions.
is the branch of the philosophy that aims to
establish the general principles of art and
beauty. It is a relatively new branch of
philosophy that emerged in the early 18th
century in England and Germany more than
2000 years after the emergence of the other
branches of Western philosophy.
• LOGIC
Logic deals with the nature of thinking and reasoning using empirical
support to establish the truth. It is the study aimed at determining the
conditions under which one is justified in passing from given statements,
called premises, to a conclusion that is claimed to follow from them. Logical
validity is the characteristics of an argument that guarantees that if the
premises of the argument are true then the conclusion must necessarily be
true.

• DEDUCTIVE REASONING – Reasoning from universal truth to

particular.
• INDUCTIVE REASONING – reasoning from particular to universal or
general principles.
• ETHICS
The term Ethics is derived from the Greek word “ethos”
means “characteristic way of acting” which is proper man as a
rational being. The Latin word for ethos is mos (or mores).
The goal of Ethics as science is to investigate the nature of
the human act or human conduct. But the formal object of Ethics,
meaning its point of view in studying the human conduct, is right
morally or rectitude of human acts.
Ethics is a philosophical science that studies the morality of
human acts. As a science, ethics is concerned with the analysis
of the nature of the human conduct from the point of view of
morality.